He quoted me:Moving bathroom walls/adding dry wall: $3KReplacing door with window: $1KAdding island w/ stove and oven: $4.5KRelocating sink: $3.5KAdding dishwasher: $600Replacing door w/ Wall and W/D hookups: $3.5KAdding privacy fence: $1.5KAdding central A/C: $6KFloors: $8KI haven't gotten a second opinion yet from another contractor.

I assume it will go down again in 2019.Some one with more experience than me please educate me.

[The fact that you got your brother to ok the numbers before going ahead doesn't really eliminate a daisy in the daisy chain - in my opinion]. 

I'm obviously in the education phase right now and would love to set a goal to buy my first property in the next year, however, I'm going to be in school and won't have very good income in order to get a loan (I have the VA loan available to me).

Hi, I am very new to this and trying to get as much education as possible, so please forgive me if my question is stupid.

It's not a "bank appraisal", it's literally someone educated and experienced in that field analyzing the best comparables.

Everyone has their opinion as to what works and what doesn't.

Have used it to educate myself. 

I'm still educating myself (been doing so for the past 2 years), but decided to a HELoC to fund the down payment and would mortgage the rest.  

Partnering up the in-person networking of these groups and the education they have to offer with BP's podcasts/books/forums/etc, you can learn quite a bit in a short amount of time, as well as build a pretty huge network.Best of luck to you and if you ever have any specific questions, feel free to PM me.